Help!!!

Ok, so here's the deal.

My laptop just randomly broke tonight. It randomly started doing a "can not initialize logon process" error. That means it couldn't log on to Vista at all (I run vista home premium 64-bit.) I tried everything from going to start-up repair, to safety mode, to restore points, and NOTHING worked. It was BS.

So I had to do a re-install of vista from my disc (system specs in sig.) Mistakenly I formatted my recovery partition, meaning i completely deleted all my recovery data.

Well then i reinstalled vista to my C:drive. But now I have absolutely ZERO drivers. I managed to dig up the WIFI drivers so i could get on the internet. And I also somehow hot the ATI drivers so I could have my laptop screen at 1280x800 resolution. However for some reason I can't get Catalyst Control Center to install/boot up in the task bar. It's seriously a load of crap.

I am so frustrated, and am debating just selling this piece of garbage of craigslist and starting over with a new laptop, but I know that'd ultimately be stupid. But seriously, IVE LOST EVERYTHING!

I have no idea what driver updates I need to do for all the guts of the computer! I go to "Device Manager" and see exclamation marks next to half the devices, so I tell it to update drivers, but then it searches the internet, and tells me it's as up to date as it can be?!?!?! Why the hell does it have an exclimation mark next to it then????

Can someone Please please please give me advice so I don't hafta give up on this computer? It's not good this problem even happened in the first place, but I will admit it's my own fault I formatted the recovery partition that made it lose all it's drivers.

 

I had something similar happen to me with an old Gateway laptop. Fortunately I have more computers that are working, so I could download the drivers.

But since you have Internet working, I can assume you can download any drivers.

My recommendation would be to go to the manufactures website (I.E; Gateway.com), and try to locate any drivers for that specif model of computer.

I know on Gateway's website, they have a Support tab with "Drivers & Downloads" in it. Then it asks you what kind of model number is it, etc etc. Then eventually giving you a list of downloadable drivers.

 

Amen to that...

 

If you can go online - try windows update, this will find at least so, me drivers - or should at least.
You can also try letting wondows look for drivers online via the device manager.

 

thanks for your help so far. I've gone to gateways support site n downloaded drivers, there's still a few hiccups though:

this computer has a HD2600 card. Downloaded it's drivers and the full suite of catalyst control center and installed it. But it didn't install when i installed it or something like that. I mean there's no exe file and while it said it installed, doesn't look like it did. Thoughts?

1 more thing is about how i accidentally deleted the data on the recovery partition. Well how i have like a 15gb partition with nothing in it. How can i fill that up w/ new recovery stuff? I did the "make a backup" and selected my partition, but that only took up a couple hundred mb of space, not 13 or 14gb like it should. How do i basically put all that info back in there once i get my driver situation worked out?

 

I don't think you can...

 

Here you have all drivers you need: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=355556

If you have got Vista 32bit just let me know which ones you are looking for.
I will upload them. Have got drivers for both Vista versions.

 

ok yea this is weird. so i go to install catalyst control center, n it acts like it installs it. then i look in my c: drive, in program files, under the "ati technologies" folder. That's where it installed to. I hope the folder and it's empty. No software, no files, no exe file, nothing. Done this like 4 times already. thoughts?

 

yes that's weird...dunno which one you try to install, but perhaps try to
install this one first: http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=21886&dscr=ATI%20Video%20Driver&uid=223929935

you can always update later. after extracting it, look in C:/cabs,
than run As administrator. it should install fine.

 

ah okay got catalyst control center to install. I think I have most the drivers install now, but when i go to the device manager, there are still 3-4 things that have the exclamation mark over them, but when i tell it to find a better driver online, it says its already using the most up to date one. Advice?

And this is the biggie:

Okay so i have my C drive being all normal-ish now. The D drive was my factory partitioned recovery drive which I accidentally and stupidly deleted. So now my D drive is empty

However when booting up windows, it asks me to "pick" which operating system i want to boot up, Vista or Vista, and the 2nd selection isn't REALLy there. I mean if you pick it it says the files aren't there. So is there a way I can make boot up not make me pick since there is only 1 install of vista on there? So it just automatically boots?

And lastly, is it possible for me to make an image of my C drive and kinda throw it over to the D drive to make my own recovery partition so that D drive isn't just wasted space?

I appreciate all the help so far, this has been very frustrating. I can't believe 1 stupid random error message will basically break ur whole computer lol. I'm tempted to give up but hoping the additional advice will prove useful. Thanks so much again in advance!

 

Guess, you will have to install Vista again. This time, when will ask
you, what you want to do, check Custom Installation, next check
Drive Option (Advanced) and choice to format partition C. This way
you will get clean partition without old system.

I think, you still have the previous system on the drive, that's why
during booting it ask you, which Vista you want to boot, the old one
or the new one.

About the image... yes it is possible to make one on the second partition.
I have image of my C partition just on the D one. Also, I put over there my all portable programs, this way i don't have to reinstall them every time. I use the Spotmau Power Suite to make images, but you can choice the other applications to do this like, Paragon, Acronis or simmilar. I usually do this just after installing my apps, still on the fresh system.

 

Well here's what i did:

i accidentally deleted/formatted the restore partition (D , and installed vista on it initially. Then i realized that was wrong. so i formatted it again.

Then i correctly formatted drive C, and put vista on it. So in theory that shoulda completely had 2 empty partition, C and D, and Vista should be on C and only C

Well it still makes me select during bootup what OS i want to boot (even though there's only 1) and in addition, in the program files on my C drive, it has Windows and Windows.old. I shouldn't have those "windows.old" files there. It's taking up like 50gb somehow i have no idea.

Well so i tried deleting the windows.old folder, and it deleted most of it, but the space is still gone from my C drive. It's saying that I'm using like 60gb of space and i know im no where near using that much.

I could take a print screen of a certain screen if it'd help anyone analyze the situation. Should i just give up a 2nd time and just re-wipe everything? that's what i did the 1st time n it's still being stupid with me, so not sure if that'd help

 

I see...you have the "windows.old" files, because you didn't format
partition during installing Vista. I had something like this first time
I try to install super clean system... you know, without this c**p
which OEM installation has.

The 60GB of space for Vista is too much, half of this would be enough.
I would in this situation, delete both partitions, format whole space and
repartition drive again. For example: C =60GB, D =18GB as the Recovery
and the rest as E =155GB for data. I have got about 32GB space occupied
by the Vista on C. So image from these 32GB is about 13Gb on D

Try to install Vista again after you will wipe out the disk clean.

 

is there a way to make a recovery partition w/o paying for the software to do so or prolly not?

 

You would think a OEM OS CD would restore the partition? Or was that partition the computer's equivalent of the OEM OS CD?

 

i think the partition was the equivilant to the factory programs n drivers that shipped w/ the laptop. I have a Vista cd though that came w/ the computer, but i think the partition had the xtra drivers/bloatware, etc, where as the CD install is completely clean w/o any drivers which sux

 

You are right, recovery partition had all needed drivers and programs as well.

The free application to make backup of the whole system you can find here..
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/

Guess, you will be interested in this one, too... http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/?filter[11]=Backup%20Restore

 

to get rid of the boot-up choice between vista and vista, do you think if i go into "computer manager" in vista,and choose to format my D drive (the partition i accidentally installed and removed vista from)? Does the computer manager formatting completely delete that? Cuz i know it wouldn't come up w/ that boot up screen thing unless it still thinks the D drive has vista on it for some reason, and u can't have 2 windows on my only other main partition, C

 

I'm not sure if reformating D drive will help.... there are two vista instalations
in bootloader, take a look into this http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Bootloader+Management

I will try to ask friend who's know computers better then me, what to do, and let you know....

 

I guess , I found solution...

right click -- Computer, click Properties, next click Advanced System Settings...in the Startup and Recovery click Settings...

under the Default operating system, you can select which system you
want to boot as the default one, and set the time to display the list
of operating systems to 0 seconds.

It will boot right away to Vista of your choice without showing the list
of OS to boot.

This should handle your problem.

 

I would check that program out. Perhaps under Add/Remove Entries you could delete the extra Vista entry. And then delete the windows.old folder.

 

Thanks for all your help. I gave up n sold the computer yesterday to a shmuck off craigslist. I mean i got the drivers, but it still thought there were 2 Vista installs, which there werent. Plus it still was a bit off. And I'm the insane type of perfectionist w/ my electronics that if it's not factory new-like and running fine, i drive myself INSANE and after i stupidly got rid of the recovery partition, there wasn't really a way for me to get it back to optimal settings etc. shame too *sigh* but yea I just got myself way 2 worked up over it. Since I already reformatted it and had lost all my pictures and music, it made it easier to just be like "eff it" and sell it, since it was "clean" already.

prolly hold off on getting a replacement for a couple weeks til i find something on a good deal, so in the meantime i'll be checkin back for deals on here haha

 

I'm sorry to hear you sold her, perhaps you gonna get the better one...
cross my fingers.

If you will need any help just PM me. And please remember to make the
recovery disks right away, and what is more important, remember to get
image of the whole drive and each partitions, as well. Image the drive
as soon as you get the machine. Backup, backup and backup everything
on the external disk.

Cheers...

 

lol yea thanks for your help. I think I was just too panicky and annoyed etc. I am OK w/ computers, but not as proficient as I think I woulda had to have been (alongside spending $ on specialized software) to kinda get the computer back to "perfect" so to speak.

But yea it was a 15 incher anyways, and while I liked the graphics capabilities of it, i have an xbox 360 so i found myself never getting a single PC game for it, so was kinda wasted potential i suppose. Hoping to find something a bit smaller/lighter to replace it with on the cheap. Hopefully within the next couple weeks I'll come across a nice 12"-13" cheapie that has integrated graphics since I think that's probably all I really need.

 

Well, good luck in the search for the new one. You are right, it is
a little waste of lappy potential, but you are not alone...(just got
two games on mine, I'm not kind gamer), but it is nice to have BIG
motor under the hood, right?

Yea, you quit to soon, because there are freeware, and perhaps
as good as the other ones, so you do not have to spend any money
on specialized application and paying for them.

Once more, good luck...Cheers

 

hope you can fix your issue